lifelines and pool volleyball

Sorry I have'nt been blogging lately. Maybe this entry will shed some light on it for everyone. Have an awesome week.

Well our company just left. Susie’s sister and her husband and their 4 kids have been with us for the past week and a half. Yes, that is right there have been10 people living in our house together for nearly 2 weeks and 911 was never called. AMAZING!!!

We have had an awesome time Ashlyn and Anthony have really enjoyed the company of their cousins and Susie has enjoyed spending time with her sister. So last night it was time for the family volleyball game in our pool. Now I do not know how many of you realize how competitive our family is, but when it comes to sports we all like to win.

So the game begins without incident. –I need to inform you that we do not have a traditional net across our pool we have blow-up rafts tied together which form our 2 foot wide by 3 inch high net- which by the way continues to move with the waves of the pool. With that said let me digress. We choose sides and decided who will be playing on what team when Ashlyn informs all of the “ButtHeads” -her favorite word- that she does not want to play. We then instruct her to sit on the side of the pool and not say that word again. This worked quite well until her cousin got a little to close to her so Ashlyn scratched her face. Mind you all the while the game is still going on. I am not sure what the score was but I think we were losing.

I re-entered the game after having a discussion with Ashlyn about why we do not try to scratch the eyes of our cousins out. Upon re-entry of the game I was determined to make a difference so in all of my Gaylord Focker fashion I began to smash everything that came on our side of the net back at face of someone on the opposing team. It was awesome!! Then Susie gently informed me that most of the players on the other side of the net were under the age of 14. I realized the error of my ways and began to play as normal as I could without losing of course.

I know you are reading this wondering what this has to do with anything so I will tell you. Have you ever gotten so involved in something where you were so focused on what you though was the goal that you really missed the goal. Last night the goal was not for me to win, it was for the kids to have a great time with their moms and dads acting like kids. I missed that for a moment.

Sometime I think we miss it when it comes to church as well. We get so focused on doing the right thing, singing the right songs, having the best equipment, sharing the best stories, being the coolest church, that we miss the most important thing. What is it? It is rescuing people who are lost in a sea of sin without hope and throwing them the lifeline of Christ. However, that does not seem all that cool or glamorous at times. But that is what we have been called to do. You see when we do that we will hear from those rescued words like the ones I heard from my little 6 year old niece this morning.

I asked here what her favorite part of her trip was in coming to Florida. Now you must know that she went to Disney, Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios, Downtown Disney, Fort Desoto Beach and many other cool exciting places but this was her response. She said I liked playing volleyball in the pool last night with everyone the best. My heart sank. She understood the big picture cool stuff, great music, good stories and awesome equipment without connection is crazy. She felt connected last night and it meant something.

I thought how may people are out there that I know who really don’t care about all of the fancy stuff and great stories they just want someone to climb in the water where they are and help them out. Maybe we should focus more on those lost at sea then those complaining on the shore. I don’t know about you but I want to be involved in rescuing people and throwing lifelines out. Will you join me?